New Hydrocodone Laws

When I heard about the new laws regulating hydrocodone I didn’t think it was a huge deal. I’d been on it for 5 years and my doctor and I agree it’s the most effective thing for my situation. I felt confident that he and I could work through this.

But here’s the big problem: with doctor and patient working together and doing everything they can, this medicine is still almost impossible to get. I had to leave work early Tuesday trying to get to the doctor’s office in time but traffic was too bad. Then on Wenesday I was 2 hours late to work after “stopping by” the hospital where I had to wait, then have a pow wow about these new laws and how ridiculous they are and how it’s very hard to get around. In fact we mostly discussed other pills to try that were easier to get.

Well that sucks! Because I’ve been doing this for five years and yeah, I’ve tried a lot of other medicine. Meds that didn’t work, or made me sicker, or stopped working over time. Hydrocodone has been good to me. Now I have to start all over.

On top of that I now had to pay for a doctor visit AND hospital parking – making my usually $5 pills cost $37 not including gas and time missed at work.

Just look at the prescription pad both the doctor AND pharmacist have to fill out:

So after a deep interview with my doctor I had to all but do a background check at the pharmacy. It feels like we’re all guilty until proven innocent with this law. Except that there seems to be no way to prove innocence.

I apologize for the strong language – but the war on drugs has seriously fucked us over.

Man, jumping through all these hoops sure would be hard if I was in pain with no treatment – OH WAIT.

Generally people need medicine when they’re most sick, so this is NOT a good time for me to be running around like this. Not to mention the havoc it’s wreaked with my anxiety disorder.

All of this on top of the mental anguish of infertility, transitioning from full time to freelancing, and regular life problems.

If you want some more insight into why these new laws are so tragic, check out this video. I have it cued up to what I think is the most shocking and depressing fact, but if you have time I encourage you to watch the entire half-hour.

((WARNING: If you watch all the way to the 26 minute mark, there are graphic medical images that may be disturbing to some viewers. Digression advised.))

And, for the record, these laws have NOTHING to do with the Affordable Care Act or “Obamacare.” I’ve had a lot of people say “Oh yeah Obama made me switch insurance” or “we’ve had to jump through hoops to get -insert regular schedule III medication here-” – No. Just, no. This has nothing to do with that. You aren’t listening.

Almost forgot to mention – NO REFILLS. So now I’ve got to ration the shit out of these 30 pills before DOING THE ENTIRE THING FROM SCRATCH ALL OVER AGAIN.

What do we do, guys? This is important. Would a petition help? Do I need to chain myself to something? I’m not usually a protester but

Good and bad to every story. They make people jump through hoops so these are not so easy to abuse. Because there are many people who do abuse them. But valid patients are the ones who suffer most, as you are pointing out. This controlled substance law is created and enforced by your federal government. Interesting how this is becoming an issue now since this med has been around forever.

Another very good point. They didn’t put this many restrictions on it in the first place. So frustrating to punish a majority for a minority of abusers. Most who do abuse already get it from illicit sources anyway. Frustration!

Have you tried adding magnesium as an adjunct to your medications? It helped my pain tremendously (I don’t have endometriosis, but i have enough other pain). And don’t be so sure that reclassifying Hydrocodone was not part of obamacare. Only a handful of doctors and law-makers have read the 9000 page law. There are things in there that have no business being there and do not pertain to health in any way.

I’ve heard good things about magnesium. I’ll have to ask my doctor about it – I’m currently in fertility treatment and I don’t want anything to interfere with anything else – it’s a frustratingly delicate situation haha.

Well metaformin was never intended to treat endo but it does, so your argument is a bit weak. I’ve been on hydrocodone for five years with no increase in dosage or problems with addiction. In my case (and in many like mine) I only need it when pain flares up, meaning that I probably take about 5 a month. In this way, my body has time to detox and no increase in dosage is needed.